Intimate Relations: Innerwear Designers Court Customers the Techie WayRamamurthy said while Cosabaella is active on Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr and, just recently, Instagram, Facebook is the clear front-runner. “It’s definitely our strongest, our most active [platform],” she said. “I think people react to it so strongly because it’s so visual yet news-driven. The time line helps create excitement because it adds a sense of newness to the content.”

In the ever-evolving marketing dialogue, one concept dominates the conversation: social media. It’s been the marketing buzzword of the last several years, as consumers embrace the onslaught of platforms, from iPhone apps to Facebook to Pinterest. So how are lingerie brands jumping on the bandwagon to reel in customers?

For many brands, Facebook forms the centerpiece of the social media infrastructure, the fundamental and frequent first step toward consumer engagement. Cosabella was a relatively early adopter, joining the site in November 2008. “We’ve always been on the forefront of social media, thanks to Valeria Campello [the company’s founder],” said Pallavi Ramamurthy, Cosabella’s global marketing manager. “Back when we all used dial-up modems and we were all only using the Internet through AOL, Valeria was talking to these women in chatrooms and on discussion boards. This was before the thong was something we all had in our dressers. She’d see these women post complaints about panty lines and she was on there saying, ‘No, you can wear this beautiful thong! Look what we’ve developed!’”